Tuesday, November 30, 2010

According the Green Lantern folklore, Abin Sur was an alien Green Lantern that Hal Jordan inadvertently killed. Hal Jordan took the dying alien’s ring and became the next Green Lantern. Even though he was given superpowers, he was punished by having to wear a dork costume.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Ash has been reading The Unwritten recently. He said it’s a book about an author who wrote a series of popular magical books like Harry Potter. The author named the character in his book after his son, so it’s similar to boy whose father wrote Winnie the Pooh. At the peak of his career, the author disappears and the comic is about his son and his wacky adventures.

Strange things start happening to the author’s son when things from the novels start to come to life. I know Ash told me more about what was happening because his is really excited about this title, but I think I drifted to sleep when he was telling me about it. The only other thing I know about this book is that Ash has let the comics pile up for a year, and now he is finally reading them.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Say it isn’t so! I heard that Seth Rogen is going to be a superhero in a movie. He’s going to be the Green Hornet. I know about the Green Lantern and the Green Arrow, but I don’t think Ash reads much with the Green Hornet. I’m sure my husband will end up purchasing this movie. I really can’t say that I am looking forward to seeing Seth Rogen gad about in a spandex suit.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

In 1943, Norman Rockwell made a very famous painting called Freedom from Want. It features a family excited for a turkey dinner. It appears that grandma is bringing in the giant bird, while grandpa stands ready to carve it. Various family members are gathered around the table in anticipation, and my favorite part of the painting is the man in the lower right hand corner. Only the top of his head can be seen, but he looks like a goofy uncle who is trying to be the center of attention.

Anyway, last year I saw this parody of Freedom from Want in the back of one of Ash’s comics. While the superheroes are all gathered for what appears to be a Thanksgiving feast, it seems that Power Girl ruined the main course at first glance. However, a second look will reveal that it is only cardboard cutout of a burnt turkey, because otherwise that Blackest Night logo would have had to conform to the contours of the bird. The real turkey is in the other room waiting for Superman to heat it up with his x-ray vision.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Usually, I chose to write about my husband and poke fun of the things that likes. Occasionally, I also write praises to MST3K and Bruce Campbell since those are things that Ash and I both enjoy. However, today, I am going to break tradition. Instead of just teasing my husband, I am going to mock complete strangers who loath and despise me because I don’t care for Red Dwarf. Here is a picture I drew for them.

(Drawing by Fanboy Wife.)

(If you’re a person who enjoys Red Dwarf, but you are not fanatic about it to the point of calling people who don’t like it names, then this has nothing to do with you. Then again, you’re probably a reasonably sane person and won’t be insulted anyway.)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Godzilla vs. Megalon is about the people of Seatopia rising up to conquer the Earth. Fortunately for the Earthlings, Godzilla teams up with a giant robot to save the day. Unfortunately, Rhino lost the rights to sell this movie, so volume 10 is no longer sold with Godzilla vs. Megalon. (It is possible to buy a used copy for an extremely high price, but even I don’t like the show that much!)

The second episode begins with the short, What to Do on a Date. I learned that going to the movies is a bad idea, but weenie roasts and rummage sales are romantic. Tom Servo tried to apply why he learned in an attempt to woo Gypsy. The main feature is Swamp Diamonds, which is about a group of female convicts and an undercover cop who break out of jail in an attempt to find some diamonds in the swamp.

Teen-Age Strangler is truly dreadful. The spoiler is that it’s a movie about a strangler whose victims are teenagers; it’s not about a teenager that strangles. The best host segment is when Mike transforms into a whiney character from the movie and confesses that he stole a bicycle.

The last movie is The Giant Spider Invasion, and it just about unwatchable. Unlike some other films featured on MST3K, this one is memorable too. It’s about a drunken woman, her hideous and unfaithful husband, their skanky daughter, a scientist in a pants suit, and condescending scientist, a guy who was on Gilligan’s Island, a prostitute, a bunch of spiders, spider puppets, and the local townsfolk. A meteor lands in Wisconsin, and giant spiders hatch. Those spiders grow up to become giant spider puppets, which terrorize the town.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Despite the hard economic times, Ash is doing his fanboy duties and continues to support the comic book industry even though we can’t afford to turn on the heat. One of his more recent acquisitions is Nemesis, which is made by the guy who made Kick-Ass. (Kick-Ass was a comic that was later turned into a movie that I didn’t watch. Ash watched it, but I was busy making pasta e fagioli.)

Ash said that Nemesis is about, well, a nemesis. The main character hunts down police chiefs because his mother was punished for a crime she committed. At one point, he abducts a man’s children and will only release them if the man learns three family secrets. The man finds out that his son is gay, his daughter had an abortion, and his was cheated on him. Nemesis releases the children, but the daughter is pregnant with her brother’s baby. Nemesis used a magical formula during the IVF process that will make it is so the daughter could never have children again if she aborts her inbred fetus. Apparently, Nemesis is a pro-life fanatic. He’s also extremely pronatalist if he thinks the worst thing that could happen to the daughter would be infertility. I guess adoption doesn’t exist in this aspect of the multi-verse.

The front cover if issue one states that Nemesis “MAKES KICK-ASS LOOK LIKE $#!T.” If this is better than Kick-Ass, I feel pretty fortunate that I was cooking while Ash was watching TV.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The last time I wrote about WitchbladeAsh wasn’t too impressed. Apparently, I lack imagination and whimsy because I’m not impressed by a story about scantily clad women who have magical gloves that turn into knives.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

I’ll admit that I prefer Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes that feature Mike instead of Joel, and even though MST3K 11 has 75% Joel I still enjoyed it. The episodes include The Ring of Terror, The Indestructible Man, Tormented, and The Horrors of Spider Island.

The Ring of Terror is about some very old medical students who go through hazing to be in a fraternity. The opening scene features a man looking for his cat Puma, which is a reference that pops up in later MST3K riffing.

The next film, The Indestructible Man, is bad but I’ve seen worse. It’s about a convict that was executed brought back from the dead, and he goes on a rampage. A cop and a burlesque dancer save the day. The best part of this episode is when Joel tries out the extreme close up technique that was used in the movie, but the robots lick him off camera.

The last Joel episode in this set is Tormented, which is about a Jazz musician who lets his girlfriend fall to her death right before he gets married to a different woman. After her death, the musician is “tormented,” but it really looks like he was merely annoyed for most of it. There was a scene when the dead girlfriend’s head shouts, “Tom Stewart killed me! Tom Stewart killed me!” This lead to Tom and Crow removing their own heads so they could shout, “Joel Robinson killed us! Joel Robinson Killed us!”

The final disc in the set is Horrors of Spider Island. The movie is about a group of dancers who get in an airplane crash and have to murmur listlessly around an island that is home to a giant spider. Mike and the bots also experience their own plane crash, while in drag, in order to share the dancers’ experience. The giant spider on the island was quite laughable, which caused Mike to make his own terrible spider costume.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Luke Cage was Power Man, and he has indestructible skin. Ash said that he was a blacksploitation character from the 1970s who wore a tiara. Power Man was teamed up with Iron Fist, but he was killed, and then later brought back. Anyway, Power Man just goes by his name now, and he doesn’t team up with Iron Fist that often either. Luke Cage also knocked up another superhero, Jessica Jones, and later married her in the Alias story.

Now, Luke Cage is in The New Avengers and he’s possessed by a demon, who is trying to find the Eye of Torquemada (of whatever it’s called). He’s also bald and a giant. Dr. Voodoo is supposed to be in charge of the Eye, but demon got a hold of it and took it to another dimension.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I always buy a lot decorations in November when they’re on sale. This year, I bought a ghost pillow amongst many other things. I think it’s Ash’s favorite new toy. When he first saw it, he said he wanted to make a red circle pillow with a slash through it to convert it to a Ghostbusters pillow. Additionally, Ash keeps doing the voice from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon bumps and having the pillow tell me, “Goodbye,” and “We’ll return to The Real Ghostbusters after these messages,” when I’m on my way out the door to go to work.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Ash has a job where he can wear basically whatever he wants to work. There might be something in the dress code about no pajamas or ass-less chaps, but otherwise the rules aren’t very strict. Anyway, Ash has decided that this is the perfect opportunity to buy even more superhero t-shirts. I guess on the one day he didn’t wear a nerd-shirt recently, his colleagues were concerned. The sad thing is that Ash has accumulated so many comic t-shirts he can go a few weeks without repeating one.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Volume 12 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was the last boxed set put out by Rhino, and it contains The Rebel Set, Secret Agent Super Dragon, The Starfighters, and Parts: The Clonus Horror. There are two episodes with Joel and two with Mike.

The first episode has a short called Johnny at the Fair, which is pretty amusing. It’s about a child who gets lost at the fair, and of course Joel and robots mock him. The Rebel Set is a black and white film about a group of men who plan to steal money and escape on a train. The crew talks about what they would do during a long train stop, and only Tom Servo has violent plans.

Secret Agent Super Dragon has a horrible theme song, and it will burrow itself into your brain. Even worse, Crow and Tom sing the song again. The show itself is about an James Bond knockoff who has to solve a mystery about drugs or something, and it ends with a masquerade party in Amsterdam.

The first episode with Mike is The Starfighters, which is about pilots in the army. Many of them have very bad sunburns, and there are a lot of innuendoes about refueling in flight. Crow spends a good portion of the episode trying to connect to the “information super highway,” and the United Servo Academy Men’s Chorus sings. There’s also a great scene when the pilots test out their poopie suits.

The last disc is Parts: The Clonus Horror, and the highlight of this episode features Crow T. Robot’s new nose job. The movie is about a clone camp, and the whiniest clone escapes to find his clone daddy. The movie ends with a lobotomy or two and featured Peter Graves, who went to the University of Minnesota.

Monday, November 1, 2010

For Halloween this year, we had a toga party yet Ash managed to sneak in a little bit of superhero-ness into his costume. The pin he used for the outer layer of his toga was his Flash pin. He was the fastest Roman alive.